Day of the Rains, 10th of Spring, 526 M.E. (Electra): To be sure, Dogen arrived at the conclusion that grass and trees are conscious not from a deep botanical study of arboreal structure and functions or from reading philosophical essays by David Chalmers and Thomas Nagel.    

To Dogen, everything is everything. To Dogen, everything was mind and since everything was mind, everything has the same substance and nature as everything else. The self is mind, mountains and rivers are mind, grasses, trees, and even land are mind. And because they are mind, they are living beings. "The sun, the moon, and the stars are mind itself. Because they are mind, they are living beings and they have Buddha Nature."

When we look at the world, we see self and others, we see mind, we see man and nature, mountains and valleys, life and death, and the conscious and the insentient. But when all is mind, there is no self and others, no man and nature, no mountains and valleys, no life and death, and no consciousness or unconsciousness. But because it is like this, there is self and others, man and nature, mountains and valleys, life and death, and the conscious and the insentient. Still, sunny days, while adored, cloud over and rain arrives when it's least welcome.

It was a surprisingly sunny and warm 82° outside today. I walked a 5.6-mile Monroe and as I always do, I stopped and laid my hand on my favorite tree on my route, a spectacular Pennsylvania ash. There's a spot on its trunk where its braided bark is worn down, and every time I pass it, I put my hand for a minute or so on that exact spot. Every single time. The spot almost perfectly matches the size and shape of my hand, if I hold my thumb and index finger apart and the other three fingers together. 

I doubt the tree is aware of my presence or my touching it, but I become aware of the tree, more than I would by simply walking past. Laying hands on that one particular tree has become a part of my routine, and my walks wouldn't feel the same without it. My routines become my rituals and my rituals begin to feel sacred.